DIY Stationary and A Snail Mail Vacation

There’s nothing like getting a letter in the mail.

You have to admit, it’s more exciting to get something in your mailbox than in your inbox. And summer just seems like an appropriate time to write a letter. It’s a time to write home, or to family all about your summer adventures.

With a new baby in the house and Dad far away, our adventures are going to be pretty limited and close to home. To make up for it, I’m sending my kids on a snail mail vacation.

But before I get to that, I thought it would be fun to make my own custom stationary kit…

Sending mail is fun, but sending it in style is even better.

With some fun scrap booking paper and coordinating Washi tape, I had myself a little crafting hour…

The tape sharpened in the pencil sharpener surprisingly well. It didn’t gum up the blades that I can tell. Yay for washi tape!

Pretty stationary is like sending flowers. The blooms will die away, and in this case the pretty envelope will get tossed, but the pleasing aesthetics brighten the soul as much as the words in the letter. The thoughtfulness will last much longer in spirit, which makes the little details so worth it…

When getting it ready to send, it can be sealed up with more glue stick and/or some washi tape.

I used leftover scrap book paper to cover existing envelopes too…

In order to make the envelopes mailing friendly, I heavily and securely glued the strips of paper to the front of the envelopes. (which was after the picture below… :))

Beautiful. A nice stack of pretty stationary, ready for whenever the letter writing mood should strike this summer…

I decided to make a kit for Owen as well, to help him with his writing skills this summer. He pitched in by making his own custom envelopes…

Then I clipped all his hard work, plus some other things on this clip board. That way he can write wherever and whenever he chooses.

Owen wanted some washi tape too, so I stuck strips of it on the clip board that he can peel off and use to his hearts delight.

And with our stationary all made it’s time for our snail mail vacation!

Basically, I shrunk the kids down to little paper dolls so that we can send them chain mail style to all our family members.

I typed this letter up in Picasa and got it printed at my local print shop (Kinkos, Alphagraphics…any of those will do) along with pictures of each child.

I assembled the card and then cut my kids’ pictures out so my print shop could laminate them.

I wrote a list of family members on the back of the card. When one family receives our letter, their challenge is to take a picture of doing something fun with my “kids.” Take them for a ride in the car, prop them next to the salt shaker when you take them out to lunch, etc.

Then print the picture, or email it to me, and send the paper dolls and the picture on to the next family member on the list.

By the end of the summer we should have an album of pictures of our “kids” visiting all of our family members.

We hardly see our family, so I’m hoping it will help us reconnect with far away family and help my kids get to know them.

That is awesome! One of our really good friends is gone to camp for 2 months, so this will be so much fun to do for her. Thanks for the ideas for the washi tape too! I love it, but have no idea what to do with it!

SO SO cute, i can't hardly take it. You're such a great mom. My husband is gone often as well and i definitely needed a kick in the pants to make a better effort this summer instead of just getting discouraged and overwhelmed. thank you!

SO SO cute, i can't hardly take it. You're such a great mom. My husband is gone often as well and i definitely needed a kick in the pants to make a better effort this summer instead of just getting discouraged and overwhelmed. thank you!

I am inspired! Thanks for the great post. Living so far away from family is not at all easy. I admit I am terrible at snail mail, but I do aim to be better! I think this is a fantastic way to get me to my "Be A Better Snail Mailer" goal.

This is such a great idea. All of our family is so spread out and we just can't make it to everyone during the summer. This will a super fun project for the kids and our family. Thank you for your wonderful ideas!

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